House sparrow on way to extinction
New Delhi, March 19
The house sparrow that was declared the “State Bird of Delhi” in 2012 is edging towards extinction due to lack of emotional connect, says conservationist Mohammed Dilawar.
Dilawar, who started the practice of observing March 20 as World Sparrow Day in 2010, said that “mindless urbanisation” was leading to a loss of the birds’ natural habitat.
“Common sparrows are going extinct because of mindless urbanisation. They are losing not just their natural habitats, but also the essential human touch they need and thrive upon.
(Follow ; and )
“The current generation is so much surrounded by technology that they have forgotten about nature. The indifference caused by lack of emotional connect has pushed these birds to the edge of extinction,” said Dilawar, who also founded Nature Forever Society for India (NFSI), a non-profit organisation to conserve house sparrows.
World Sparrow Day, an initiative by the NFSI, is now observed across 50 countries.
The conservationist also attributed the depleting population of sparrows to increased use of packed food, insecticides in farming, and changing lifestyle, resulting in inadequate availability of food for the birds.
“Earlier women used to clean grain outside their houses and sparrows would have plenty of food from there,” says Dilawar. — PTI
